REVIVAL ON THE MAT

The 2016 European Judo Championships held in the Russian city of Kazan will be remembered by Azerbaijani judokas for two historic events. First and foremost, Azerbaijan won a gold medal at the continental championships after a 5-year pause. Another achievement is that the Azerbaijani squad ended up among the medallists in the team competition for the first time.

Baku 2015 European Games finalist Orxan Safarov, who contested in the -60kg category, was the first to win a medal for the Azerbaijani squad in the capital of Tatarstan. After three wins in a row, he secured the right to compete in the final but failed to become a champion. Gaining an advantage in his fight with a French judo wrestler, Safarov eventually suffered defeat, caught by the opponent's hold in the last seconds. Thus, he had to be content with a silver medal at the European Championships for the second consecutive time.

It is delightful though that Safarov's mistake was not repeated by his teammate Rustam Orucоv. Competing in the -73kg category, he outmuscled all his rivals and won the continental championship for the first time in his career. Following three wins in the semis, the Azerbaijani athlete met with Russian judoka Denis Iartcev. Despite the support of the local fans, Orucоv defeated Iartcev by an ippon and reached the final. Here, he was up against Georgia's Olympic champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili. Having won in the final, too, Rustam Orucоv was acclaimed the strongest in Europe. It should be noted that Orucоv's success put an end to a 5-year period of waiting for a gold medal. The last time an Azerbaijani judo wrestler won a European gold was in 2011, at the championship in Turkey. Rustam Orucоv went down in history of this sport as the fourth representative of Azerbaijan who became the best on the continent. Since 1992, only three Azerbaijani judokas had been awarded the title of champion. The first European champion from Azerbaijan, Nazim Huseynov, succeeded in winning the title twice - in 1992 and 1993. However, we had to wait as many as seven years for another championship: in 2000, Elcin Ismayilov proved to be stronger than all his rivals. A year later, he managed to emulate his own success, and in 2005, he wrote his name into history as the first three-time European champion. The third European champion, Elnur Mammadli, became the strongest athlete on the continent twice - in 2006 and 2011.

On the whole, we can take only a favourable view of the team's performance. It should be noted, however, that all the required conditions were created for the Azerbaijani squad. The return of Peter Seisenbacher to the position of head coach also made a positive impact on the results. Yet, admittedly, there are certain problems in the team. For example, the issue of representation in the heavy weight categories has cropped up once again. Everybody noticed that world champion Elxan Mammadov and Elmar Qasimov performed below their capabilities. They participated in the European Championships as if unwillingly. These experienced judokas did not display the will and perseverance in any of the bouts. In this context, it is possible that the national squad will say goodbye to both athletes after the Olympic Games in Brazil.

Being among the runners-up in the team competition can also be viewed as a success of the Azerbaijani judoka. Competing in the event only for the second time in their history, the Azerbaijani squad won against the Latvian team by a score of 4:1 in the round of 16. Losing to the Poles (2:3) in the next round, the squad lived up to the expectations in repechage matches. Having beaten the national teams of Greece and France with the same score of 3:2, the Azerbaijani squad became the bronze medallist at the European Champi-onships. Whereas Rustam Orucоv and Mammadali Mehdiyev gave the squad a lead in the decider, Vuqar Sirinli and Rustam Alimli were forced to experience the bitterness of defeat. When the score was 2:2, the winning point for the Azerbaijani squad was scored by mercenary Ushangi Kokouri who won his bout by an ippon.

Rustam Orucоv shared his impressions with R+ about the winning of the European Championships bronze medal by the Azerbaijani squad. "The current success is based on great work of the federation and our coaches. We competed as a close-knit team. The French were strong opponents. Nevertheless, each of us fought to the very end, as we strongly believed in success. We dedicated the victory to the memory of our martyrs. Therefore, we marked this success by a salute at the awards ceremony. I am happy that I won the gold medal in the individual competition, as I had waited for this success for 16 years. The award received in Kazan was my first medal at the European Championships. But one should not be satisfied with this. Our achievements should be ongoing".

In the meantime, Orxan Safarov, who became a silver medallist for the second time in a row, confessed that he had failed to win the championship through his own fault. "I came to Kazan to become a champion. I started each workout with the desire to be the first and dreamed only of the championship. Although I did well in the early rounds of the competition, my performance in the final was not as good as I wanted. Unfortunately, I received a silver medal once again. Still I cannot accept my defeat in the final. I am to blame myself, of course. I had an advantage in the final, and there was very little time left to the end of the bout. Rather than maintaining the lead, I made grave errors. The opponent could not but take that chance. As a result, the gold medal went to him".

Elxan Mammadov, captain of the national team of Azerbaijan and world champion, viewed the third place won by the squad as a great success. He also noted that team competitions are an important school of experience for judokas: "The Azerbaijani squad has won the bronze medal in the team competition for the first time. This is a great success. Congratulations to our federation and the entire nation. We seem to have fished a medal from the bottom of the well. As you have seen, the competitors were very strong. With the score being 2:2, all our hopes were pinned on the last athlete. Ushangi scored an extremely important point. What counts is the overall result. Our judo wrestlers have demonstrated that we can compete as a team".

Let us recall that the next tournament with the participation of the national team of Azerbaijan will take place in the home country. Athletes will participate in the Grand Slam tournament, to be held in Baku on 5-8 May. Starting from June, judo wrestlers who won a licence for the Games in Rio de Janeiro will begin preparing for the Olympics. It is expected that the country will be represented by six judokas at this prestigious competition.